When the World Breaks
by aliexia
Summary: Before the Hunger Games, before the rebellion, how did the world end? Why did the Capitol take over?vAnd why did the districts submit at first?
1. Prolouge

**This first chapter is really just a catch up for anyone who hasn't read the maximum ride books, although I don't know why you would read this if you haven't read MR or if you haven't read the Hunger Games. Just to tell you MR is the more dominant book in this FanFic. If you have read MR than read the first Paragraph then go on to the next chapter. **

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**Prolouge**

_**When the going gets tough, the tough kill all the evil scientists in sight.**_

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We thought we'd destroyed Itex. We thought we had saved the world. More than one time I might add. We thought we were done with all off that, that maybe, possibly, we could be normal for once. We were wrong. We had forgotten one minute detail, or more specifically a person. Jeb. The man who was an evil scientist, then savior, then traitor, then father, and then the betrayer. Again.

I suppose I should start nearer to the beginning, or at least tell you who we are. I am Maximum Ride, or Max. You may have seen my flock and I on the news because of all the help we gave to stop global warming and whatnot. If you've seen those newscasts then you know we're 98% human and 2% bird. If you didn't now you know, and you can also realize why we have wings. My flock is made up of 5 other people, 6 if you include the dog. You know what, I should just make a list it would be waaaay easier than putting it in paragraph form. And I know what a paragraph is; I did go to school, real school, for a couple months out of my 15 year life.

-Fang, he's my right hand man, best friend, and maybe boyfriend. Few months younger than me, haha! He also likes to turn invisible and freak me out. (yeah, we have powers too, didn't I mention that?)

-Iggy, the almost 15 blind, pyromaniac, chef, who feels colors. Whatcha got to say about that?

-Nudge, the ever silent 12 year old. (Note the sarcasm) She's also a magnet and she 'knows' computers. Don't ask me what I mean.

-The Gasman, think about that name for a moment and wonder why you wouldn't want to be in an air tight room with the 8 year old. He's Iggy's pyro in training and a ventriloquist. Ahh, the trouble he and Iggy get into.

-Angel, my baby (not literally you piggies!) and also the one with the most powers. Mind reading, mind control, gills (Fang and I have that too), talking to fish, and shapeshift.

-Total, who could forget him? Our very own talking, flying dog

Now that you're caught up, which I wouldn't have had to do if you had read the books in the first place, I can finally tell you how the world began to end.

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**This was really short, but I'm posting two chapters at one time, yay!**


	2. Chapter 1

**Part one **

_**We should live and learn, but what if it's too late to live?**_**Chapter one**

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_Blissful, no monsters, no robots, no nothing coming after us, me outside in the bright Arizona sun. I should have known it was too good true. _

Jeb had been gone, and that made me happy. It was easier to forget and get used to him helping us when he was gone. My eyes snapped open. Just how long had Jeb been gone? I realized it had been since we had saved Mom. That kind of scared me, not that I was REALLY scared, it was more of an anxious feeling in my gut. What if he was dead or if he's gone off to plan something or other again?

So I started asking around. I couldn't find Fang (dang invisibility), Mom hadn't heard from Jeb, Angel can't use her mind powers on him, Iggy and Gazzy didn't care they were doing something else, and Nudge and Ella were shopping right now. Using the computer (obviously) I Googled him. He wasn't covering his tracks very well, or at least his secretary wasn't. I mean, really, if I could find out what he was up to with my wonderful computer skills, then anyone could. According to Google he had been around looking for people with science majors to start a new company and right now he was in Washington D.C. I couldn't find out exactly what he was doing in this company though, so I waited for Nudge and Ella to come back. They walked through the door and I prepared for my ears to start bleeding.

"Oh wow, that shopping trip was soooo fun Ella. We should do this more often. I absolutely loved all the clothes that we bought. And you look absolutely perfect in that red shirt with the belt and those new jeans. Hey, is Ella just a nickname or is it your actual name? OoOo, let me guess your real name is...Eleanor. No that doesn't fit. Ummmmm, Ellen, Helen. Not quite. Aha! What about Elizabeth? Oh, no that doesn't really work either. Elisha? Elina? No. Your name MUST be just Ella. I can't think of any other name to fit you. Did I ever tell you how the flock got our names? Well-"

I cut her off by nudging her.

"Now you know how she got her name," I said to Ella. She just laughed and walked off, probably to find Iggy. Those had been getting reeaal close lately…. Anyway, I turned to Nudge, she had already started talking again, so I just tuned her out and steered her to my room sitting her in front of the laptop and saying, "Jeb."

Then I left while she worked to do my NORMAL schedule. I stopped Gaz and Ig from making, yet another bomb (this time it was out of butter, a toaster, 25 pencils and a straw)and helped Mom make chocolate chip cookies. I am absolutely obsessed with those cookies. I have yet to find their equal in yumminess. I talked Ella about girl stuff, stuff that I shall spare any guys reading this from learning about. I finally found Fang too, after he freaked me out of my wits of course. He had been waiting for Mom and I to leave the kitchen so that he could steal some cookies, figures.

This is Fang-Damn Max caught me (don't pay attention to Fang he shouldn't be reading or writing in this, and excuse his language)

Last, I made sure that Angel wasn't messing with anyone's mind. She hadn't been messing, but she had been reading, minds that is. I know because she told me that Nudge was done looking up Jeb.

As soon as I stepped into my room she started talking.

"Max, Max! You have to check this out! Jeb's, like, trying to restart Itex. I think he's having someone else do his internet stuff because usually Jeb is cleaner than this. But I'm not sure exactly what he's trying to do with Itex, although I did find a video of him talking about 'the districts' and 'the capitol' although he was in Washington D.C. Of course the dude taking the video didn't realize that he was taking a video of Jeb, but Angel taught me how to lip-read. The Itex budget must be low though because he wasn't in the penthouse or in a big security place. It looked like a church, but whatever."

Like a miracle Nudge shut up (I think it was my look at her), so that I could process the information. I knew most of the stuff, but the whole 'district' and 'capitol' thing was new, so was that Jeb was working out of an abandoned church. I sighed, just when I was beginning to trust or at least get used to Jeb again. He goes behind our back and makes this crazy plan to take over the world or something like that. I suppose he thinks it's all for our benefit. Then I, using one of my split-second decisions, decided we should go check up on him, for HIS benefit. I threw my stuff together (there wasn't that much, I was always prepared to leave) and ran from my room, down the stairs, and out of the house yelling, "Up and at em people! We have a world to go and save!"

What? It always gets them up faster.

"Wait! Wait! Where are you going?!"

"dang mothers," I muttered under my breath. It's true that's the worst thing about having a mother, they're always worrying about you.

"Washington D.C. to check up on Jeb. I'll call," I yelled to her. Then I flew east, knowing that my flock was behind me, mostly because Gazzy had let off one of his 'special abilities' right then. Poor Mom she was probably right underneath him.

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**I know it's going quickly, but I decided to just start the story instead of a few normal days at the Martinez house because well, I'm just an impatient person.**


	3. Chapter 2

**Hola again! I didn't disappear off the face of the earth! And I have no excuses for updating so you can be as mad at me as you want to be.**

**Nighthawk21: I think I'm going to make it in North America, Capitol in Washington D.C. (who would have ever guessed?!) and the districts in other random places in North America. (Which includes Canada too!)**

**I forgot the disclaimer (*gasp*) so here it is now and it carries throughout the whole story: I do not own Maximum Ride or the Hunger Games. Well, the ideas and characters, I do own the books. So then I can read them over and over and over….. Oh, and I don't own Hitchhiker's Guide or St. Gregorious Orthodox Church either. =) (yeah, I don't use that name, but that's what the picture is of on my profile)**

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**We got across country quicker than ever, stopping only once, to eat someone out of their restaurant. Angel raised a fuss about me leaving Total behind, but I wasn't about to turn back now. The kids had a conversation about how the evil doers always seem to be on the opposite side of the country or across the ocean from us, I agreed, it did always seem to be that way. Why couldn't they be the guys across the street or something? Okay, that might be slightly weird, but you get the idea.

We booked a hotel using Jeb's money. Yes, Gazzy stole his credit card, he was going to make it for a bomb, and I didn't really care after all 'when it rains, it pours. I guess that applies to all people, including Jeb. It certainly applies to me. The girl looked at me weird, but at least she didn't ask any questions. I decided to wait till the next day to look for Jeb, after all it was late and the kids looked like they were going to fall asleep on their feet. I took first watch because I was still wide awake and everyone else went to sleep. At least, I thought they all went to sleep.

Fang snuck up on me and started massaging my shoulders; I freaked out and punched him in the gut before I realized who it was.

"You KNOW what I'm like when people sneak up on me. I thought you were something from Itex that Jeb revived or something," I whispered angrily.

"Yeah, I know. But you're getting paranoid again. You were finally relaxing back at Doc's house." He whispered back. Now most people would have been surprised that Fang was talking so much, but we always have conversations like this when the rest of the flock aren't around.

"Jeb reviving Itex, I have a right to be paranoid,"

"Just because you have a right doesn't me that you should be paranoid and anxious and angry at ALL of the world,"

"I'm not being like that! It's not like I'm Marvin the Paranoid Android or something!" And yes I've read 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' Ella has very….interesting reading preferences.

"What?"

I realized our voices had gotten loud and dropped my voice back down to a whisper, "Never mind, just don't sneak up on me and stuff."

"I can't even give you a massage?"

"Not right now, maybe tomorrow," a massage did sound nice after all….

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Angel was the one who woke me up the next morning. Apparently Fang fails as cooking almost as much as I do. Key word for Fang: almost. Yes, I know they had an all you can eat buffet at the hotel, but Fang was trying to make me breakfast in bed. Isn't that sweet? After we cleaned the bacon off the walls we went searching for the church that Jeb's working out of. Nudge told us that it was right in the middle of Washington D.C. and we found it pretty quickly. It was a red brick, two story church with a white roof and a couple of pillars out in front. The church didn't look very dangerous, but Nudge assured us that she saw Jeb talking in one of those windows.

When I walked in there was a short, long haired black haired girl laying on a sofa. She was reading a bible, or at least pretending to read, and smirking at it, which I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to do if you're a devout Christian.

"Hey, this is…" I looked at the sheet of paper that Nudge gave me, "St. George's Catholic Community Church right?"

She just stared me down and nodded.

"Okay then… Well, can you tell us where to find Jeb Batchelder?"

This time the girl nodded.

"Well then, tell me!"

I was getting pissed off now.

"Down the hall way behind me, down the stairs, his office is the last one on the right."

"Thanks, do you know what he does here?"

"No, he rents, used to be mine, but having money is better than having an office, even if you get annoyed by people," she said, giving a pointed glance in our direction.

I backed off, and followed her direction, as soon as we were out of ear shot Gazzy started cracking up.

"Oh, wow, that was epic! You should have seen it Iggy! That girl had a death stare to equal to Max's!"

Nudge added, "And she could have been a sister to Fang, she was certainly silent enough, and she had the olive skin tone, and she had the same smirk, and the hair an the-"

Iggy cut her off, "Thanks Nudge, but I think I know what she looks like now."

Angel was going ahead soon she was on the bottom floor and projecting into our minds the conversation she was hearing behind the closed door of Jeb's office

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"_Are you sure this plan is going to work?" _

_"Of course, have you known one of my plans not to work?" _

_"Yes, the destruction of experiments 0093647 to 0093653." _

_"But that was a decoy; their true uses will be shown later on" _

_"Okay than. One more question though. How many people will you have live?"_

_"Thirteen districts, one capital. Maybe 10,000 in each district to start with and more in the capital, but no more than there are in Pittsburgh."_

_"Very well then, I trust you will tell me more once I get higher clearance from Dr. Abel"_

_"Of course. Good bye."_

_"Good bye."_


End file.
